First 3D print­ing bridge con­structed in Shang­hai

A bridge made with 3D print­ing tech­nol­ogy will be in­stalled at Taopu Cen­tral Green­belt of Pu­tuo district af­ter tests, Xin­min Evening News re­ported Thurs­day. It will be the coun­try’s first 3D-printed bridge to come into use.

The bridge, stand­ing 1.2-me­ter-tall, 15.25-me­ter­high and 3.8-me­ter-wide, was fin­ished within 35 days. Ac­cord­ing to Chen Xiaom­ing, gen­eral en­gi­neer of the man­u­fac­turer, the con­struc­tion team used in­no­va­tive ma­te­ri­als and skills to make sure the strength and dura­bil­ity of the bridge meet na­tional stan­dards of con­struc­tion.

A newly in­vented 3D ro­botic print­ing sys­tem played a key fac­tor in the build­ing process, which saved both per­son­nel costs and im­proved ef­fi­ciency. The con­struc­tion team started re­search and plan­ning one and half years ago.

Chen said that, ac­cord­ing to test re­sults, each square me­ter of the bridge can bear loads of 250 kilo­grams, and the bridge can be used for 30 years.